7 thoughts on “Tuesday Open Thread”

1. Weld County officials adopt new oil and gas "regulations" [sarcasm quotes mine]

   Weld County commissioners adopted new rules on oil and gas development Monday morning. They say the companies will no longer have to go through public hearings on any new projects, even if they’re drilling in residential areas. Companies will not have to get landowners to sign off on their plans; they will just have to prove they tried to.

   […]

   The commissioners didn’t give much explanation to the about-face on the rules, though they acknowledged the stark differences. Commissioner Chairman Mike Freeman attributed their change in tune to several meetings with industry representatives in the last year.

   “It’s going to be streamlined,” he said, of the new process. “It’s going to be easy. At the end of the day, it’s going to be truly beneficial to the industry.” [emphasis mine, and here endeth the lesson]

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   1. They really don't like those public hearings where citizens actually stand up and tell them that they don't appreciate the fracking wells next door (in Greeley, they actually can be next door, even if next door is an elementary school, an assisted living place, or a huge low-income apartment complex).

      This "streamlining" to benefit industry is  crap and must be pushed back on. It's not like the price of oil is going to go up or become any cheaper to extract.  This must be all about future gambling and holding on to market share.

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2. Jared Polis for the New Democratic (aka "Blue Dog") Coalition Chair?

   Since most "Blue Dog" Democrats have lost their seats, all of them in ignominy, Democrats' new strategy at maintaining a "Republican Lite" political posture is now called the New Democratic Coalition.

   And though this continuing, failing strategy has been shown for what it is over and over, as it continues to betray Democratic ideals and our battered Middle Class, our beloved multi-millionaire congressman Jared Polis wants to run the damned thing.

   A couple weeks ago, DownWithTyranny mentioned that the Republican wing of the Democratic Party— the New Dems– was in the process of electing new officers. Jared Polis, the wealthiest Democrat in the House, is running for the chairmanship, although people tell me that Wall Street crook and ex-New Dem chieftain Joe Crowley still calls the shots there. Polis is sending his election literature to non-members who forward them on to me for a laugh. He followed that up with one called Thanksgiving Note (personal). Don't you just love getting spam marked personal?

   From Jared:

   As we rejoice in the blessings of family and friends this Thanksgiving, in appreciation of our small private worlds which are so important to giving us the strength to serve, I am particularly thankful for our New Dem Family.

   …The New Dems are a future-oriented caucus. We don't want to go back; we want to make the future work. The America of the 1950’s, while it may have had opportunities for white working-class men, was not kind to the rest of us, including women, people of color, and the LGBT community, among others. That's not a past we desire to return to, but it should serve as inspiration for us to create a better future for everybody, including white working-class men. A future in which rather than retreating into isolationism and nationalism, we work with the rest of the world to create a better and more prosperous future. One in which we stamp out bigotry and discrimination and rise to the challenge of ensuring that our economy can work for all Americans.

   That would be pitiable if it hadn't come from a millionaire Congressman-for-Life like Jared.

   We're now looking at a President Donald Trump and a historic and ruthless rollback of popular (God Forbid!) and progressive (Wait, what?) achievements. Much of this can be attributed to Democrats' fealty to Wall Street, their abandonment of Main Street, and their complete inability to stand for the most basic principles that helped make the modern Democratic Party ideological home of America's Middle Class. 

   (Please refer to Wikipedia entries on “Franklin Delano Roosevelt” and “Harry S. Truman” if you are ignorant of this history – as our current elected leaders seem to be.-ed.)

   Jared Polis will continue those failures in the name of the "New Dems". Michael Bennet – the unrequited Blue Dog – will quietly stand by.

   And Colorado Pols won't say a thing about any of them. 

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   1. "One in which we stamp out bigotry and discrimination and rise to the challenge of ensuring that our economy can work for all Americans."

      It would probably help if the U.S. House of Representatives did away with the Black Congressional Caucus and the Hispanic Congressional Caucus.  How much more blatantly racist does an organization need to get before they are considered politically incorrect?

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      1. When racial minorities are on an equal economic footing with whites with comparable education, when racial minorities aren't targeted for beating and shooting by police, when GOP strategists don't plot to disenfranchise black and latino voters, then those caucuses might outlive their purpose. But not until then.

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3. @pseudo

    

   This is just the beginning of a torrent of such moves by all of those who would exploit the current madness in our political world….

   It is a good time to be Josh Penry.

    

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4. What you can do to protect water: Ogallala aquifer, Missouri River, and the people who are standing strong to prevent the Dakota Access Pipeline #nodapl.

   Call these sheriffs' departments, ask them not to deploy their people to suppress protesters at Standing Rock.  A few are already refusing to send their staff to protect what is really an energy company's investment, not a pressing public interest. Donald Trump is an investor in the DAPL, via Energy Transfer Partners.

   Also, many veterans are self-deploying to Standing Rock to act as human shields, according to this New York Times article.

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